Staff correspondent <\/span>
\nLawmakers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led main opposition refrained from attending the parliament session Thursday as the speaker, Abdul Hamid, kept pending a decision on their demand to return their front row seats.
\nA BNP parliamentary delegation met the speaker at the latter\u2019s office Thursday morning and demanded that the previous seating arrangement in the house be restored giving them back the five front row seats to the left of the chair.
\n\u2018We met the speaker in the morning and requested him to give back the front row seats to his left to the opposition bench,\u2019 opposition chief whip Jainal Abedin Faruk told New Age. \u2018He told us that he would make a decision after\u00a0discussing the issue with the ruling party.\u2019
\nSenior opposition lawmaker MK Anwar led the six-member delegation.
\nThe lawmakers of BNP, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh Jatiya Party held a meeting in the meeting room of the leader of the opposition at 4:00pm seemingly waiting for a decision of the speaker until the parliament session resumed at 4:45pm.
\n\u2018We have decided not to join the parliament for the day [Thursday] as the speaker did not convey us anything till 5:00pm,\u2019 he said at 5:15pm after the meeting.
\nThe opposition MPs will meet again to set a strategy before the next sitting of parliament on Sunday or Monday next week, he said.
\nThe lawmakers of BNP and its allies on Wednesday staged a walkout from parliament in protest at the new seating arrangement giving four instead of nine front row seats to them to the left of the speaker.
\nThe immediate-past speaker Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar allocated the nine front row seats to the main opposition. The new speaker on Wednesday morning changed the seating layout giving five seats to two ministers and three senior leaders of the ruling Awami League-led alliance pushing BNP MPs back to the second and third rows.
\nSpeaker Abdul Hamid said Thursday afternoon that the opposition lawmakers had initially demanded return of the five front row seats. \u2018Finally in the discussion, they trimmed down the demand to three seats,\u2019 he claimed.
\n\u2018I have told them that I can change the seating plan again if the ruling party agrees to vacate the seats,\u2019 the speaker said. \u2018Otherwise, I have nothing to do.\u2019
\nHamid said he had already conveyed the opposition lawmakers\u2019 demands to ruling Awami League\u2019s chief whip Abdus Shahid.
\nShahid informed the leader of the house and prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, about the meeting between the speaker and the main opposition, a treasury bench member told New Age.
\nHe also informed the prime minister about the demand of the opposition.
\nThe prime minister and the speaker are likely to discuss the issue, possibly over phone, the treasury bench member said.
\nIn the 2001 parliament, when BNP was in power, all 10 seats in the front row to the left of the speaker were allocated to opposition lawmakers. They were the then leader of the opposition Sheikh Hasina, senior opposition MP Zillur Rahman, present speaker Abdul Hamid, senior AL leaders Abdur Razzak, Abdul Jalil, Suranjit Sengupta, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Dewan Farid Gazi, Jatiya Party faction chairman Anwar Hossain Manju and senior JP presidium member Rawshan Ershad.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: newagebd.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staff correspondent Lawmakers of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led main opposition refrained from attending the parliament session Thursday as the speaker, Abdul Hamid, kept pending a decision on their demand to return their front row seats. A BNP parliamentary delegation met the speaker at the latter\u2019s office Thursday morning and demanded that the previous seating arrangement … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n